5: Then Came The Night (Darkness of Eve)

“No, no. I mean, you are making me crazy with anticipation! What did you figure out about HIM?!”

“Oh. That. Well….” she said with her head cocked to the left, “I need to ask you some questions first.”

“Ok, shoot,” I said. I was kind of nervous about that for some reason.

“You’re not my mom, soooo I was wondering if you knew who my mom is,” she said while inadvertently stabbing a dagger into my heart….again.

“I have no idea, Eve. We’ve been over this. I don’t remember anything before the accident,” I said. I knew from there on out the morning was literally going to suck.

“How could you not know? I always thought you were just saying that. Are you really going to sit there and tell me you have no idea who my mom is?” she asked getting angry.

“Yes, Eve. That is what I am saying. I have no reason to lie to you. Grammy and Grandpa apparently died long before the accident and they would have been the only ones who might know,” I said not really sure if that was true.

“Well Fuck!”

“EVE!!!”

“Sorry. I suppose that means you don’t know who my dad was either,” she said with a pout.

“Nope. Sorry baby. I don’t. I woke up days after the accident and all I know is the only thing I had… was you. Eve, I don’t know anything. I don’t know where we lived, I don’t know where I worked, I don’t know anything except I was and still am so very lucky to have YOU…even if I’m not your mom,” I said, tears building up in my eyes.

She came to me and hugged me.

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to keep saying that,” she said, “I thought maybe, just maybe, I was looking at HIM all wrong. I thought maybe it was my dad looking for me. It makes no sense though. I wouldn’t think any father would want to hurt their daughter,” she said.

So young and naive. We went about the day doing our normal things for a Saturday: light cleaning inside, enjoying the sunshine outside, even a few giggles here and there which actually surprised me….then came the night.

Eve slowly sunk back into her darkness. It was something she hadn’t overcome since that awful, bloody night two years ago. I knew that night that she would never be the same innocent Eve that she had been before. I don’t think anyone could recover from waking in blood filled bed screaming that her darkest nightmare was coming after her. HE had her that night. I cut the restraints. I pulled her from HIM. She was never the same after that.

I peeked in on her a few times waiting for her to fall asleep so I could curl up in the lazy boy beside her bed and wait for the nightmares to come. She was cuddled up on the bed with Bear, tears silently rolling down her cheeks. I’m sure she thought I didn’t see, but I saw everything when it came to Eve.

It took quite some time for her tears to stop and her body to stiffen from fear. It was near 3 a.m. I watched as her skin puckered into goose bumps and her eyelids started flickering back and forth rapidly. But everything seemed different. I felt the chill in the air. Something was absolutely different. It was then that the room went dark and I heard a blood curdling scream. That scream wasn’t Eve…it was me.